waking up in the chilterns

23 November 2006

Thrangu House, Oxford

The traffic in Oxford is busy and slow, so it was later then planned that I arrived at Thrangu House at 42 Magdalen Road, Oxford. I met Kathy Eason, the Secretary, Lama Wangyal, the resident Lama, and Stuart Tett, the Treasurer.

Thrangu House came about through the activity of Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche in 1979 when he first came to England. Over the next few years a number of houses were used for the growing community, culminating in the present location in Magdalen Road with its large and attractive shrine room.

The house and shrine room host a range of activities including meditation teaching, Chenrezig Puja and Tibetan Healing exercises.

Over a cup of tea, I described the history of the NBO and discussed my role. Lama Wangyal, Kathy and Stuart were not familiar with the NBO. Like all of the organizations that I have visited, their focus is on running a successful centre. Lama Wangyal mentioned a leaky roof and hoped that the Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund offered by the government might help with this.

Information about the Capacity Building Fund is available from the government website and the NBO has also circulated this information to members. However, the word ‘building’ included in the title is misleading; the funds are not intended to improve the physical integrity of temples and houses, but to improve administration processes and ‘service take up’, to use Civil Service jargon.

Lama Wangyal was interested in the role of the NBO in bringing groups together, but also wondered whether exposure to too broad a range of Buddhist teachings might lead to confusion. For example, such teachings as impermanence were very deep and required focus and practice to penetrate.

Lama Wangyal emphasised the practical nature of his teaching and Thrangu House. These were focused on generating happiness for people and helping with their lives and not on committee meetings. He asked in what way the NBO could directly help Thrangu House. I explained that the NBO offered publicity channels through its website and had helped organise events. It also provided information from various sources to its members. The NBO is not static but has evolved and adjusted its activities over the 12 or so years that it has existed.

The NBO is open to suggestions for change and for greater involvement with its members, but any activity does depend upon volunteers and resources being available.